Review Summary: Seven songs that meant a lot when they were released come back From the Ashes.
When they came back with the awesome Pop That Pretty Thirty EP in 2014, Rabbit Junk had been maintained artificially alive for more or less three years during which JP Anderson would release only a few (great) songs from time to time because of a slightly conflicting relationship with the band’s record company.
It is nevertheless during these years that Rabbit Junk operated a deep shift in their sound towards electronics. When the band released its first new tracks following the nearly flawless 2010 Project Nonagon, “What Doesn’t Kill You Will Make You A Killer” and “Lucid Summation,” it already had shed its skin.
The former, apart from being awesome, is interesting as it represents the first utterance of their ultra heavy electro oppressive aggressive openers that “Break Shin to This,” “Invasion,” “Pop That Pretty Thirty,” “From the Ashes” and “Dig Dug has a…” -no not that one-, are very nice variations on. But Rabbit Junk had already sounded similarly before; “What Doesn’t Kill You Will Make You A Killer” is comparable to songs like “Demons” or “Iso vs Life” off of the first two albums of the band but performed with a completely revamped sound. I wonder how “Iso Vs Life” would sound if it was to be rerecorded today.
“Lucid Summations” represented a bigger departure from the band's usual repertoire at the time (And it was already quite varied). With its approachable rock sound, its sing along chorus, ethereal bridges and epic build ups, the song was a truly nice experimentation.
Nearly a year later, “Bubble” and “The Boy With The Sun In His Eyes” went further into that experimental vide. More hooks and more poppiness for “Bubble” and more seventies progressive rock epicness for “The Boy With the Sun in His Eyes.” That latter track seriously stands out as a sad parenthesis in RJ’s history as it is absolutely brilliant and makes us wonder how JP Anderson can hesitate to rely on melodic singing.
But it might also make us question the remastered versions that are given us here a little bit. Strangely, the original versions of these tracks felt a bit more oriented towards the vocal delivery of JP and Sum Grrrl. It seems that the objective on Singles from the Lost Years was to make them blend more with the instrumental part instead of overlapping it, the problem is that this neutralizes their impact a little bit on songs like “What Doesn’t Kill You Will Make You A Killer,” “The Boy With the Sun in His Eyes” or “Break Shins to This.”
Some months ago, the remastered version of The Named (Another Project of JP Anderson on Glitchmode Recordings) had eclipsed the original one. If you love a track of off this compilation and have never heard it in its original mix, it is still relevant to check it.
After “Bubble” and “The Boy…,” “Break Shins to This” and “Own Up” eventually came out in 2013 and consolidated the band’s new sound to make it a coherent whole again.
When listening to Rabbit Junk in 2016, it is obvious that the shift in sound through which the band went was only superficial. The core and the heart are still there, and where would they go anyway ? BEAST is still as angry, experimental, fun and lively as Reframe or the self-titled album were and the title track would totally have found its place on these albums (if recorded and mixed similarly of course).
The “Singles from the Lost Years” somewhat tells a non-story as the band is still strong and true to itself and, in the end, we’ve been given two albums worth of great music since Project Nonagon.
And now the intensity of the steamroller that is “From the Ashes” puts a lump in my throat.
